International Master of Science in Rural Development (IMRD)

Benefits & funding

• The scholarship covers tuition fees, travel, insurance, and living expenses including board and lodging.
• Funding covers the full 24-month programme; VLIR-UOS does not offer a partial scholarship or an extension.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be nationals of one of these 29 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Palestine, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, or Vietnam.
• At application, applicants must also reside in one of those 29 countries, though it need not be their country of nationality.
• Applicants must be no older than 35 on 1 January of the intake year.
• Applicants need an academic bachelor’s degree of at least 180 ECTS or equivalent with good results; final-year students may apply if they graduate before the programme starts. The transcript must show basic training in mathematics or statistics, life sciences, and social sciences, rural development, or economics.
• Applicants must meet IMRD’s published English-language standard or its stated exemption route. TOEFL iBT 80, TOEFL pBT 550, Academic IELTS 6.5 with at least 6 in writing, Cambridge C1 Advanced, and CEFR B2 are accepted.
• Applicants may seek only one ICP Connect scholarship that year, may not combine it with another scholarship or grant for the programme, and must meet the restrictions on prior Belgian-government scholarships and earlier enrolment at a Belgian higher-education institution.
• Relevant work is not mandatory, but the scholarship gives preference to profiles likely to transfer their learning in higher education, government, civil society, or another sustainable-development setting.

Application process

1. 1
   Check the scholarship nationality, residence, age, and prior-award rules, then confirm that your degree and English evidence meet IMRD admission requirements.
2. 2
   Register in Ghent University’s Oasis portal and begin an enrolment application for IMRD.
3. 3
   Upload the required educational records and language evidence, add your CV and one-page motivation letter, answer the VLIR-UOS scholarship questions, and select the scholarship and preferred IMRD route.
4. 4
   Enter your top two focus areas and a research focus for the master’s dissertation in no more than 100 words, then submit the complete application by the scholarship deadline.

Program timeline

1. 1 October 2025

   Applications opened for the September 2026 intake.

2. VLIR-UOS scholarship application deadline.

   28 February 2026

3. VLIR-UOS communicates selections and waiting-list decisions.

   By mid-May 2026

4. The two-year programme starts; IMRD also expects clarity on whether VLIR-UOS funding will continue for a future cycle.

   September 2026

5. The programme ends.

   September 2028